The transfer of copyright protected digital content is known generally. Presently, content providers are the only source for content previews, which may usually be transferred freely. Content preview recipients may obtain complete access to the corresponding content and corresponding rights from a content server or some other source only upon payment of a content license fee.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,974 entitled “Method And Apparatus For Sharing Music Content Between Devices” discloses peer-to-peer transfers of copyright protected content. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,372,974, where only a single user license exists, the copyright protected content is removed from the device from which it is transferred upon verification that the content has been successfully transferred to or copied by a receiving device. Where multiple user licenses have been granted, the number of content copies transferred is controlled by decrementing a counter on the transferring device each time a copy of the content is transferred successfully.
A Nokia publication entitled “Digital Rights Management And Superdistribution of Mobile Content” discusses the evolution of digital content protection from control over content delivery to control over content usage. In content delivery control architectures, an application server downloads content to a purchasing terminal upon payment confirmation by a payment collector, for example, a network operator. Delivery of protected content beyond the purchasing terminal is prohibited by a content forward-lock, which prevents the content or copies thereof from being re-transmitted by the original recipient. Content delivery control schemes have been used to prevent the proliferation of pirated cellular handset ring-tones.
According to the Nokia publication, in content usage control architectures, content usage rights are expressed in vouchers, which may be created and distributed separately from the content. According to this architecture, the content is registered by or with a voucher server. Payment for issued vouchers is collected by a payment collection entity, for example, a cellular communications network operator. Registered content previews may be transferred freely among terminals in peer-to-peer communications and viewed without a voucher, but the content may be fully accessed only upon purchasing a voucher from the payment collection entity.
A CONTENTGUARD publication entitled “eXtensible rights Markup Language (XrML) Example Use Cases 20 Nov. 2001” discusses, in Section 4.15 thereof, a content superdistribution model wherein an original content consumer retains content rights, but subsequent content recipients must acquire rights to use the content. In Section 4.16, another content superdistribution model specifies how many content copies a distributor may make.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the present inventions will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the arts upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description of the Invention with the accompanying drawings described below.